Jillian at Shady Grove

Jillian at Shady Grove
Originally uploaded by Matt Hawk in Austin

She can really lounge. Mad skills, yo.

Foundation Repair Week Upon Us

Foundation repair started on my house on Monday. Very exciting times! At least, when you're paying thousands of dollars for something, it helps to get a little excited about it. Thought I'd share a few pics...



Here's the view from where I park the car. Lot's of dirt dug out of the holes around the house.



They had to move the bushes to continue the holes around the front of the house.



Here's what's inside the holes. As you can see, they've sunk a pier and added an end cap.

Next step (tomorrow, I'm thinking) is to jack up the foundation and then put spacers in between the end caps and the foundation to hold everything up good and level. Really looking forward to my doors working again and of course not feeling like the house is sinking around me.

Not too busy to blog though, are we?.....

God I love the web site this is from:

busier than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest

To be so busy, that you will never finish your job
"There is no way I can finish that too!" "Im busier than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest!"
busier than a one armed paper hanger busy bee fuck busy busy as a fuck busy

So, yeah. Things are heating up right now, as I'm sure they are for everybody. Jillian started 2nd grade and the boys have started pre-k (trust me, there's pressure associated with pre-k). I just realized that because we've signed the kids up for soccer, we'll be up at friggin Wells Branch soccer fields at 5:30 on Wednesday and 6 on Tuesday and Thursday for practice, not to mention games on Saturday. Works not exactly light for either Cassie and I. Football is back (hallelujah...just means there are games to watch :-) ). What's more, we're entering the high season of family birthdays and holidays. There's a little thing called the San Antonio half-marathon in November that I'm currently training for (although I'm doing Marathon-level distances for training runs). I can already see the rest of 2008 starting to pass in a blur. Oddly enough, I'm not worried about getting all the things I need to get done done. If anything, I'm excited about getting it all. Its been a pretty slow, hot, languorous summer for us and I'm stoked at getting things moving.

One of the things I'm most looking forward to getting going is the repairs of the foundations on our house. Let me back up a bit...it turns out that Austin and specifically the little square of Austin that my house sits on is full of a type of soil called Black Gumbo. "Black Gumbo", is a generic term for highly elastic, clay based soils. That means it grows and shrinks a lot based on water in the soil. Last year we had 2x the normal rain fall all summer whereas this year we have 1/4x. So, I live in a house that's slowly sinking into the ground. Check out what happens....

drywall goodness
cracks in ceiling
yuck

Plus, there's other good symptoms like your doors not wanting to close any more.

At any rate, there's a very strong foundation repair business going because of all this. I'm told there are whole subdivisions in North Austin that will have to be redone as soon as they sort out the class action lawsuit against the builder. Live and learn. Repair consists of pushing a peer down deep in the ground, to the load-bearing-strate no less, and resting the edge of your foundation on that. My house is going to get completely encircled in peers. I'll be staying home and monitoring a little of the work and will post some pics. I might as well since I'm spending 10 grand for this lovely home...err...enhancement! If you have the same type of problems, let me know. I've done a whole bunch of research and can point you away from some options.

Football is back

Football is back
Originally uploaded by Matt Hawk in Austin

Having a margarita at Vivo after the game. Life is sweet.

Yummy breakfast at Waterloo Ice House

Yummy breakfast at Waterloo Ice House
Originally uploaded by Matt Hawk in Austin

Reward for a 12 mile run

Sillian Hawk

Sillian Hawk
Originally uploaded by Matt Hawk in Austin

Jill drew the body. The head turned out slightly smaller than to scale.

Got a new toy

I got a flip mino and took the initial video (below). I'm looking forward to easily recording all kinds of stuff and sharing it. Yay.

hot out there

hot out there
Originally uploaded by Matt Hawk in Austin

this is me after running to austin high, doing straight and curves, then running back. its been as high as 97 today. blech!

Why running marathons is like having a baby

1. You tend to forget how miserable it was after a while and start wanting to do it again
2. Practicing is the really fun part

So, I signed up the Rogue SA/NY/Chicago Marathon training group. It's a month into it but I haven't exactly been stuck to my couch since Big Sur. 12 miles tomorrow, hopefully followed by a quick dip in ye olde springs of barton. Good times.

chain chain chain

I've been experimenting with one of the suggestions in here . Specifically the one about making a visual progress calendar with flickr. Here it is . I think it's cool. I'm going to put a picture in on the days when I do "good" and by that I mean do my workout and not eat like a pig. It already helped me today on the third day. I very well might have gone to Mike's pub for a burger for lunch instead of going to yoga. Yay me.

not too

not too
Originally uploaded by Matt Hawk in Austin

Starting things up.

Starting things up.
Originally uploaded by Matt Hawk in Austin

Big Sur Analysis - Mission Accomplished

The goal was to run faster for the last 10K than the first 20 miles. The first 20 took 4:03:20, about a 12:10 split. The last 6 splits starting after were 12:18, 12:25, 13:32 (last water stop), 11:53, 11:13, and 11:19. And I was able to run strong for the last .6 miles or so. that puts the average of the last 10K somewhere in the 12:05 range.

Now if I could just do something about being SO F%&$ING SLOOOOOOOOOOW, life would be great. :-)

Big Sur is done

Big Sur is done
Originally uploaded by Matt Hawk in Austin

On the plane headed home. Took me 5:23 to finish. What an ass kicker of a course! Never experienced elevation change like that except maybe that trail race at Camp Eagle. Still, I felt I ran a smarter race than either of the first two marathons. I was conservative at the beginning and it allowed me to finish strong. I was pretty much passing people the whole race and a LOT of people at the end. It was an amazing experience. Think I'll do it again when I'm 50 pounds lighter.

Almost go time

Almost go time
Originally uploaded by Matt Hawk in Austin

Met the bus at 4:15am and rode an hour down to the staging area. Forgot my food, but they had plenty down here. Jeff Galloway is up on the podium talking through race strategy. Pretty stoked!

FW: Good luck

FW: Good luck
Originally uploaded by Matt Hawk in Austin

Me in front of Dad's temporary place while he rebuilds his house. Big Sur is tomorrow.

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More shots from Camp Eagle

Actually, now that I think about it, I still haven't written anything about my trip. Needless to say, it was awesome. I brought home a bronze medal! Although I was guaranteed one as one of only three male registrants, I felt it was well deserved as I ran a strong race and came in 4th overall...out of 8. Anyhoo...



Camp Eagle

Eatin tacos in the sun

Eatin tacos in the sun
Originally uploaded by Matt Hawk in Austin

Missed my window to run this morning so Myles, the kids, and I walked to Taco Shack. Brandon spilled his chocolate milk all over the patio but we did allright otherwise.

View from my hotel room in Vegas

View from my hotel room in Vegas
Originally uploaded by Matt Hawk in Austin

Not sure if its showing up in my phone photo, but my balcony looks down on the pool and out towards the strip. Swank!

OK, not about running, but this makes me happy

One of my favorite shows is coming back on the air. Yes, I'm a big dork.